I think my first was either Duck Hunt or Crossbow. (technically not a light gun, but still...) My favorite series is The House of the Dead, but there've been a lot of other good gun games as well. Crypt Killer, I remember being impressed by its shotgun controllers.

I'm still a big fan of light gun games, in fact the only reason I still have a CRT in my gaming set up is so I can still use my G-Con 2.

Time Crisis 2 is my top pick, it looks better than the arcade original and plays really well - I even did a review of it for my blog a while back.

I picked up Time Crisis 4 with the G-Con 3 a while ago but have not spent a lot of time with it yet, but the LCD set up seems pretty good.

The Japanese only PS2 Gunvari compiliation comes highly recommended, coming with the original Time Crisis and Point Blank games.

I'm still hoping Namco port Time Crisis 5, but there's been no news that I know of sadly.

I've tried using 3rd party LCD compatible guns with the PS2 sometime ago, notably the Ultimarc Aim Trak but they're a waste of time and money. The Aim Trak looks good (aping the 1st guncon), but it feels cheap (no weight to it) wasn't that acurate and gameplay is compromised with the Time Crisis series due to the button layout making the TC2 uncomfortable to play.

Imo, if you're a light gun fan you need to stick with CRT for the retro stuff. I think it's very unlikely anyone will ever develop an LCD compatible gun that works with the PS2/PS1 lightgun compatible games properly. Maybe Namco could do a HD remaster of its back catalogue to bolster demand if it did decide to port TC5 - help reduce the costs of a new gun through game sales.

I think my first was either Duck Hunt or Crossbow. (technically not a light gun, but still...) My favorite series is The House of the Dead, but there've been a lot of other good gun games as well. Crypt Killer, I remember being impressed by its shotgun controllers.

Crossbow is a lot of fun. I play it frequently at Barcade.

TransatlanticFoe wrote:

It's underused in home consoles, frequently only a handful of titles. Here's a pair of Master System exclusives that deserve some respect.

Rescue MissionYou're a sniper providing cover for a medic riding a handcart through a battlefield (yes really). It's not particularly challenging but it gets quite frantic.

I never played Assault City, but Rescue Mission was tits. Very unique take on the genre.

I have Lethal Enforcers I & II for the PlayStation, Elemental Gearbolt, which I don't play as much, Virtua Cop Re-Birth, The Ketsatsukan, and the entire Time Crisis series. I don't have the gun controller for any of the games with the exception of Time Crisis 4 and Razing Storm, and I'm hoping Time Crisis 5 gets ported to consoles because it looks even better than the previous ones. Hopefully I can get used to the "two pedals".

Elemental Gearbolt might be in my top 10 games ever - I just love everything about it. I fished a CRT out of a dumpster because I needed a working CRT for it. I tried (and failed terribly) to beat its Master difficulty. I briefly considered paying the outrageous prices the OST commanded a couple years back.

There's stuff in the game I'm unsure about - I'm not convinced it's possible to avoid all damage, particularly on the stage 5 and 6 bosses, but I was never good enough to say for certain. Still, it took a simple chaining mechanic and added enough subtleties to it that it's the only light gun game I know of with an interesting scoring system. That's something, right?

I've been using it with PCXS2, Mame, Model 2 and Supermodel 3 emulators. It basically turns a wii remote into a mouse, so any game that can be controlled using a mouse becomes a lightgun. It works better than the Aimtrak guns and it's way cheaper. You just plug it in, sync a Wii remote and that's it - there's a thread over on the Supermodel3 forum.

The first gun game I played was Crossbow - still love it. I also had it on the Atari 7800. Because of the mayflash gizmo I've been playing a lot of Lost World, Ocean Hunter - which is fantastic, and Star Wars Trilogy Arcade which when played using the Wii pointer is basically a light gun game. It's more fun playing it this way (the Lightsaber sections can be tough but the nunchuck analogue stick work well). It's basically as if all these games had been ported to the Wii.

Also revisited the original HOTD on the Model 2 emu - still great, and Vampire Night on PCSX2, which isn't as good as HOTD, but it's still very polished. Deadstorm Pirates and HOTD4 are both very good on the PS3 with move.

As I'm a Star Wars nut I picked up one of those plug and play games from the US. It's call Star Wars Blaster Strike. Comes with a replica Han Solo blaster (in orange...) and it's basically a very simple lightgun shooter set in the original trilogy. I play it when I'm ill.

I'm not that big of a fan of Elemental Gearbolt because it has a much darker tone compared to most light gun games. I often look at it as the light gun game equivalent to R-Type because of its oppressive atmosphere. Then again, it's already obvious that everyone is dead by the end of the game. I could only beat Elemental Gearbolt on an emulator.

I like playing Vs. Duck Hunt on my AV Famicom with the Everdrive and a hack to make the the game startable on a real NES/FC. I use the official JP gun, which I found at a decent price with the JP Duck Hunt (though the actual game is identical to the US version). Freedom Force, Wild Gunman, Hogan's Alley, Barker Bill's Trick Shooting, and Gumshoe are also good stuff.

Vs. Duck Hunt is similar to the NES game, but alternates between Duck Hunt and Skeet Shooting and adds bonus rounds. It also has lives instead of counting misses out of the number ducks/clay discs in the level. Barker Bill is the closest thing to a duck hunt sequel and plays similar with different games. It also has a mode that works similar to Vs. Duck Hunt that alternates between the three different games and adds an extra game and a bonus round.

Is it just me or is the 16 bit generation the weak link in this genre?

I'd agree with that... you had the Mega Drive / Genesis with the Menacer and the Super Famicom / SNES with the Super Scope and both died a quick death.Other than the lacklustre mini-game carts they were bundled with you had T2: The Arcade Game and Lethal Enforcers - neither of which was really suited to the 16-Bit consoles due to hardware limitations.

The Mega CD / Sega CD saw a handful of Konami light gun games (all FMV based), but i don't think any were particularly well recieved at the time.

I think Time Crisis and Virtua Cop could both be credited with resurrecting the genre as the 32-Bit era began to establish itself in the mid/late-90s.

I've been trying to make the best possible setup for PC/emulation, I've been trying using a Guncon 2 on Windows XP but it just isn't accurate enough.I know the aimtrak is not meant to be too accurate either, people generally say that the bigger bar makes it better, but this all costs a lot of money, and still haven't bought my own.

Am wanting to go through the games that I don't have a way of playing yet, and streaming those too

I'm willing to give this mayflash dolphin bar device a try. I used to have a pair of aimtrack guns, but gave them to a friend as I was frustrated with them and just didn't want them anymore...

My biggest problem with devices like the aimtrack guns, wii-mote, PS motion controls, etc. is that they seem to have a ton of inherent lag in tracking your position. It isn't necessarily that it's terribly inaccurate, you just have to wait for them to catch up to you when you aim. I find them unplayable without having an on-screen reticle. There are tons of wii shooting titles that are fun....but if you want something responsive and accurate look elsewhere.

As a brief aside, it's interesting that the only major console of the 8-Bit / 16-Bit era that seemed to eschew the lightgun was the PC Engine despite it having virtually every other peripheral you could think of.

I've been trying to make the best possible setup for PC/emulation, I've been trying using a Guncon 2 on Windows XP but it just isn't accurate enough.I know the aimtrak is not meant to be too accurate either, people generally say that the bigger bar makes it better, but this all costs a lot of money, and still haven't bought my own.

Am wanting to go through the games that I don't have a way of playing yet, and streaming those too

I've been watching a few of your vids over Christmas. Very impressive stuff!The mayflash bar will never match a proper CRT light gun, and using the Wii mote to play something like HOTD is no where near as good as playing the arcade game - but it's the next best thing, way better than a mouse or analogue stick. There's a tiny bit of shake when pointing at the screen, but no drift like you get with the Move on PS3. I'm using Windows 7 btw.

Thanks!Oh I'm sure you can't get it as accurate, but there must be a way to make it very close to as accurate.At least with a controller like this, you can play games that use a analog joystick shaped as a gun.

I was playing Confidential Mission on NullDC, with the controller, obviously. Decent Virtua Cop clone, but it's quite possibly one of the EASIEST light gun games I've ever played. The quick time events are easy, especially the final one. All you had to do is align your cursor with the computer's then pull the trigger and you've already won.

I'd agree with that... you had the Mega Drive / Genesis with the Menacer and the Super Famicom / SNES with the Super Scope and both died a quick death.Other than the lacklustre mini-game carts they were bundled with you had T2: The Arcade Game and Lethal Enforcers - neither of which was really suited to the 16-Bit consoles due to hardware limitations.

The Mega CD / Sega CD saw a handful of Konami light gun games (all FMV based), but i don't think any were particularly well recieved at the time.

I liked the Super Scope's mini cart. It had a light gun based variation of Tetris, as well as some other simple, but fun games. Battleclash and Metal Combat are also good stuff. I also heard good things about the Lethal Enforcers ports (which had its own lightgun and didn't support Menacer or Super Scope), even if they are better suited to more powerful hardware. I feel the Super Scope definitely fairs better than the Menacer. Super Scope had games made by Nintendo of Japan and, as far as I know, Menacer didn't have any games from SEGA of Japan. Both of Konami's Sega CD games were the games in the Lethal Enforcers series, not just some "FMV based" games. If I remember correctly, even the arcade versions of Lethal Enforcers had a mixed reception from video game magazines.

edit: If you meant non-Konami games that supported the Konami's Justifier, like Mad Dog MacCree, yeah those are mediocre. Apparently Snatcher supports the gun too. I always found it a bit odd when games like Track & Field II NES, Lone Ranger, Bayou Billy/Mad City, and Laser Scope/Gunsight had part of the game with gun support. The odd thing is that the event in Track & Field II is a bonus event that can only be played by beating over events. It isn't available in practice mode.

xxx1993 wrote:

I was playing Confidential Mission on NullDC, with the controller, obviously. Decent Virtua Cop clone, but it's quite possibly one of the EASIEST light gun games I've ever played. The quick time events are easy, especially the final one. All you had to do is align your cursor with the computer's then pull the trigger and you've already won.

Not sure about the controller, but playing Virtua Cop (or Virtua Squad as the PC version was called, for some odd reason) with a mouse is definitely much easier than playing it with a light gun.

Last edited by BrianC on Thu Jan 12, 2017 5:26 am, edited 8 times in total.

I have played both in an arcade. I liked what I played of both, but didn't get too far, or have a chance to go back and play again. The HOTD 4 controller reminded me a bit of the WiiMote with the way the reloading and some of the functions work.

Put up a vid of Air Hockey for the MSX. While Ascii released their gun and Dungeon Hunter in 1989, this didn't come out until 1992... Anyway, it's Pong with a gun. Single-player is a bit meh, but playing 2 player against a real person is probably a lot more entertaining.